


Living with it

by cheshirewritesagain2402



Series: Birds of a Feather... [2]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Fluff, Jealousy, M/M, Unrequited Crush, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:41:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27602267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cheshirewritesagain2402/pseuds/cheshirewritesagain2402
Summary: John doesn’t cope well with Sherlock loving someone else.
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes & John Watson, Sherlock Holmes/James Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes/Jim Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Series: Birds of a Feather... [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2014882
Comments: 13
Kudos: 32





	Living with it

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently I’m not good at leaving my chracters in a one-shot. I was too curious how they would progress.  
> x C.

John thought he had the worst behind him. Knowing that Sherlock was dating Jim and was in fact in love with said man had felt like the worst blow in his life, and that meant something as he had been hit in combat with a rifle square across the face.

But no, John had been so wrong. This had only been the beginning. What came after was worse. Much worse.

The nights Sherlock spent away from the flat, at Jim’s place, he absolutely hated, but he could at least wallow in self-pity in a quiet flat, his mind wandering to the two men. What could they be doing right now? Was Sherlock kissing Jim? Was he sleeping with him?

More often than not John would allow himself a drink. He hated not being able to control his thoughts, that they circled back to Sherlock now way more often than they had ever before.

You always want what you can’t have, wasn’t that the saying?

But even worse than the nights spent alone and frustrated, were the nights, and days, when Jim was actually in their flat.

Sherlock had made a habit of only having Jim here when he was too busy with something to go out.

When on cases, Sherlock usually didn’t see Jim for the duration of it. Or at least John thought he didn’t. But Sherlock was on his phone more often than he had ever been before, so he must be texting his lover while on cases too. Which meant a lot. Well, it seemed that Sherlock was really in love with the IT guy.

Today was one of those unfortunate days where Sherlock was in the midst of a case that had been demanding his attention for the last two weeks. John could see that he was exhausted, but he wouldn’t listen to the doctor and kept pushing on.

Currently it was evening and Sherlock was sitting at the desk with his laptop in front and lots of papers strewn around him. Mostly evidence pictures and documents he had asked Lestrade to bring over a few days ago.

Sherlock was typing furiously while John was sitting on his chair, reading quietly. He had offered help but the detective had declined, so he tried to be as invisible as possible, not wanting an already on-edge Sherlock snapping at him.

The whole case thing had something good coming off it too, though. John was sure that Sherlock hadn’t seen Jim in two weeks now and had stopped texting on his phone a few days ago. He couldn’t imagine Jim would like it much. John couldn’t help but smile a little.

Footsteps on the stairs suddenly became audible and John looked up from his paper. A knock on the door.

Sherlock didn’t even look up so it was unlikely that he was expecting someone.

John got up and opened the door.

Jim stood outside the flat. He looked tired but he smiled at John.

“Hi. Is Sherlock in?”

John braced himself as he stood aside to let Jim into the flat. Sherlock didn’t like being interrupted on cases and Jim was most certainly here to interrupt.

Jim entered and took of his jacket, hanging it, before he moved over to his boyfriend.

“Hi Sherlock.”, he murmured.

Sherlock glanced up quickly before his eyes returned to the screen of his laptop again.

“Jim. What are you doing here?”

“I missed you.”, Jim admitted.

John tried to hide the smirk that was tugging at his lips. He reclaimed his seat and opened the paper again, but his attention was on Sherlock and Jim.  
He could practically hear Sherlock roll his eyes.

“That’s not an excuse to interrupt me on a case.”

Jim smiled and pulled a chair closer to sit beside Sherlock.

“No, but an offer to help that you are finished sooner so I can get my boyfriend back.”

Sherlock huffed at the word boyfriend but a small smile tugged at his lips.

John scowled.

“How exactly would you help?”, the detective enquired, his eyebrows raising.

Jim looked over the pictures and documents on the table.

“From what you told me already, I assume you’ll need access to his emails?”

Sherlock rolled his eyes.

“Obviously. But Lestrade won’t give the account free yet as they still have to do some cyber tracing. I also need access to his bank account butthat is even harder to get. I need it to confirm if he has sent the money to the same person he has been sleeping with. If he emailed them. What their arrangement was about. I have a theory but can’t confirm it unless I get access.”

Jim looked up.

“So why didn’t you ask me?”

Sherlock blinked.

“What?”

“I work in IT.”

“So?”

“Sherlock.”

Jim bent forward and kissed him quickly on the lips.

John glared at him but Jim obviously didn’t notice.

“For someone so brilliant...”, Jim grinned as Sherlock scowled at him. “Anyways, I can hack into those accounts for you in maybe half an hour.”

“You can?”

Now it was Jim’s turn to roll his eyes.

“Child’s play. Give me that.”

Sherlock moved the laptop in front of Jim and the man started to typed frantically.

Sherlock had scooted his chair closer, looking over his shoulder.

“First I need to get us a browser which keeps changing our IP address constantly so we won’t get caught. I got some of my own creations with me.”

Jim pulled out a USB stick and plugged it into the laptop.

“I’m installing a software much better than yours currently. It’s your laptop?”

“Yes.”

For once Sherlock had thought to use his own laptop instead of John’s.

“Good. I wouldn’t want someone else having access to this.”

John saw that as a personal jab at himself but bit his lip before he could say anything.

Sherlock was practically leaning on Jim by now, while the latter was focussed on the laptop in front of them.

After about half an hour, in which John had gone back to reading, Jim grinned triumphantly.

“Got you.”

Sherlock grabbed the smaller man by his shirt and pulled him in for a languid kiss, that made John more than uncomfortable to witness.

The doctor stood and cleared his throat but the two didn’t part.

“I’m going to make tea.”, he announced and went to the kitchen.

He couldn’t watch those two snog each other’s faces off. No thank you.

“Let Jim make tea.”, came Sherlock’s voice from the sitting room and John turned back.

“What?”

Sherlock was already bent over the laptop again but Jim was unoccupied once more.

John always made Sherlock tea. What was wrong with his tea?

“Let Jim make tea.”

Jim stood and joined John in the kitchen.

“I make my own version of chai tea. Sherlock loves it.”

Oh, so John’s tea wasn’t good enough anymore because Jim made fancy chai tea.

“Whatever.”, John grumbled and went back to his chair.

Jim fixed three cups of tea and handed one to John, who accepted it with a barely audible thanks. He tasted the still too hot beverage and burned his tongue but damn, this was really good. And he hated Jim that little bit more.

Sherlock practically sped through the rest of the case, texting his answers to Lestrade and closing the laptop.

By that point Jim was sitting so close that he was practically in Sherlock’s lap.

The detective turned to face him and they began whispering while finishing their tea.

They were disgustingly sweet together, the kind of couple everyone hated because they had this type of easy intimacy going, that some other couples didn’t even have after years of dating. John himself had never experienced anything like it in his whole life.

“Do you guys want some dinner?”, John interrupted them.

The two men turned to look at him as if he had asked the question in Russian. Which they probably both spoke fluently.

“Uhm...”, Sherlock seemed distracted.

“You should eat.”, Jim said quietly, catching Sherlock’s gaze. “As I know you, you haven’t eaten in days.”

Sherlock had the decency to look sheepish.

Jim pecked him on the cheek before looking over at John.

“Yes please, we’d love some dinner.”

“Chinese?”

“Sounds good. Thanks.”

John placed the order, getting some of Sherlock’s favourites. He purposefully didn’t ask Jim what he liked and the man himself offered no preferences.

John didn’t like talking to Jim if it wasn’t absolutely necessary, so he tried to avoid it. It wasn’t because the man wasn’t nice, quite the opposite actually. Jim was one of the nicest people he had ever met. Having someone like this as boyfriend for his best friend was everything he could wish for. If there wasn’t the fact that he himself harboured romantic feelings for Sherlock. Reason enough for John to hate Jim.

John was relieved when the food finally arrived soo he had an excuse to go downstairs and get away from the sickening couple. He needed some time away from them and if it was only a few minutes then it would have to do.

John took the bags from the driver and went back upstairs.

And immediately realised that it had been a mistake to leave the two alone, especially after two weeks without seeing each other.

Sherlock and Jim had relocated to the sofa, the smaller man all but in the other’s lap. His hands were on Sherlock’s neck, their faces so close that John suspected they had just waited for him to leave so they could start snogging each other properly.

John entered the flat and let the door close loudly behind himself to announce his re-entry.

Jim jumped a little and blushed but Sherlock stayed calm. With a gentleness that no one who knew Sherlock would have thought possible, he moved Jim from his lap to sit beside him. Well, beside was more a relative term, as the stayed practically with their sides glued together from ankle to shoulder. Disgusting.

John set the bags of food on the coffee table and pulled up a chair to sit in. There was no chance in hell that he was going to sit on the sofa with them.

Sherlock took one of the food containers and handed it over to Jim. John noticed that it was the detective’s favourite and frowned.

“Don’t you like Chow Mein anymore? I even got it with tofu for you.”

“It’s Jim’s favourite too. Plus he’s a vegetarian, so he won’t be eating any dumplings.”

Sherlock handed Jim some chopsticks before he took some for himself and opened another container of food.

They all ate in silence for a moment, until John couldn’t take the glances between his best friend and his boyfriend anymore.

“Shall we watch some telly?”, he asked but already reached for the remote and turned the TV on.

While searching for a program, Sherlock apparently took John’s diverted attention as a sign to get back into being sickeningly cute with Jim. John couldn’t help himself but watch them from the corner of his eye.

Sherlock put his chopsticks into Jim’s box and stole some food.

“Hey, no stealing my food.”, Jim complained playfully.

“Technically my food.”, Sherlock told him with a smug smile.

Then Jim said something much too quiet for John to overhear, but it made Sherlock huff a laugh and turn his head far enough away from John that the latter was sure he was hiding a blush from him. It should be him making Sherlock blush and not this IT freak. Sherlock should be sitting all cosily cuddled up and flirting with him on the sofa and not this... this guy who had decided to show up.

Hadn't he been Molly's girlfriend at some point? Had he broken up with her because he found Sherlock more interesting? Had he used her to get to Sherlock? John couldn't be sure about his reasons but he could run them past Mycroft. What if Jim was some kind of super villain, who was only interested in destroying Sherlock's life? Going by "keep your friends close...". 

_Okay John, now you are definitely overreacting. You just want to find something on him so Sherlock will break up with him. Remember, Mycroft knows about him. You heard them talk. He knows that his little brother is in love with this guy. He surely has already run more than one background check on him, knowing every single detail about his past and present life._

John sighed and tried to focus on the TV instead of the other two men on the sofa, but it was really hard to ignore the very obvious flirting that was going on there. And the most amazing thing, Sherlock was an active participant. He replied and initiated just as enthusiastic as Jim. Well, one thing had to be said right here. they were both still very subtle in regards to flirting or being with each other in public, as Jim was a quite shy person and Sherlock very private in general. There was some giggling, some being cute with each other, some kissing and the occasional snog that John wholeheartedly disapproved of, but nothing too over the top. It was annoying because like this John had nothing to really complain about. He could hardly use the above reasons as an excuse, because he had done the same with one or the other girlfriend he had had brought home before. And Sherlock had never complained about that. He had just ignored them, or, more likely, just not realised that they were even there.

Suddenly John sat up a little straighter. What if that was it? What if he just needed to bring home another girl he was dating, not that he was currently dating, but he could find someone quickly, of that he was sure, in times of internet dating.

The doctor took his phone out of his pocket and opened one of his various dating apps. More success if you tried on more than one app, obviously.

The plan was to find someone nice who wouldn't be objected to having one date and then going home with him on the second, maybe third. Sometimes when John had been busy dating, Sherlock had reacted, not exactly jealous, but he had been something. He had wanted to have John for himself to help him on cases, instead of spending time with someone else. Well, that did almost count as jealousy, didn't it?

Anyways, John wanted to give this a try. He wanted to see if he could make Sherlock realise that they belonged together in every possible way. It would be so much easier for them. They already lived together, they got along - most of the days - and they worked together. They didn't need anyone else in their lives.

As if on cue, Jim giggled, actually giggled, at something Sherlock had whispered and John rolled his eyes. 

By now the two men on the sofa were feeding each other bites and Jim was almost back in Sherlock's lap, who didn't seem do mind at all.

This had to end.

Sooner rather than later.


End file.
